News
Greek organizations engage in various philanthropic efforts
By Ilana Schwartz ’17
December 1, 2016
Tags news
Although many Hamilton community members have mixed feelings towards Greek organizations, it is certain that they bring many philanthropic initiatives to the Hill. They plan fun events to raise money for a variety of charities, run food drives, build at Habitat for Humanity sites, volunteer at animal shelters and partake in a variety of other philanthropic activities. These events also help to raise awareness at Hamilton about important issues like hunger in the Utica area.
Organizations have put on a wide variety of events, providing Hamilton students with fun activities while raising money to benefit important organizations. This semester, Phi Beta Chi and Delta Chi collaborated on their second annual Halloween Hustle 5K walk/run. Jon Shapiro ’17 said that they came up with the idea to support the V Foundation for Cancer Research because “one of our members had some family issues related to cancer, so we wanted to raise money to support him.” He continued to explain that the organization “distributes grants to medical researchers on the forefront of cancer prevention.” The event is inexpensive, which helps to maximize the amount that can be donated. This fall, the organizations raised nearly $2,300.
Additionally, Alpha Delta Phi recently held its first annual food drive to collect canned food and non-perishables for The Country Pantry, which provides food to families and individuals in need, serving the Clinton, Clark Mills and Westmoreland areas. The members are also currently planning a 3v3 basketball tournament on Dec. 3, which will be cohosted with the Intramural Sports Committee. The proceeds of the tournament will go to the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, which they chose because “[they] wanted to pick an organization that was close to the Hamilton community. [They] know the importance of refugees to the economy of Utica and wanted to support the refugees and support their integration into the nearby city,” according to Harris Pollack ’17.
Many organizations, including Chi Psi, walk in the annual Utica Heart Run and Walk in the spring, raising money for the American Heart Association, which focuses on fighting heart disease and stroke. Last year, Chi Psi raised $2,500 prior to the walk.
While Greek organizations plan philanthropy events individually, the Intersociety Council, which “serves as a unifying platform for Greek societies on campus, and as a liaison to the administration,” is currently planning a campuswide event spearheaded by members from all the Greek organizations on campus. The event is called the Intersociety Council Philanthropy Initiative and it will be one big ticket event that will include the whole campus. The participants will be split up into four teams, each of which will pick a charity to represent. There will be a competition between the teams to raise the most money by the date of the event, which is still in the early stages of being planned. At that point, the sum of the money will be split. Half will be donated to the organization picked by the winning team and the other half will be donated to the remaining three. According to ISC Co-Chair Silvia Radulescu ’17, this event will hopefully “bring together the campus community and highlight the value Greek organizations can bring to our campus” by supporting several causes that will be chosen by the students participating.
Overall, Greek organizations support a wide variety of charities across the country and world by getting the entire campus involved.